Review of The Mummy (2017) by Akira J — 12 Jul 2017

The Mummy 2017.

It should be mentioned I am a huge fan of classic Universal Monster movies and the 1999 Mummy film was one we watched on repeat in my house growing up. When Universal announced their shared Dark Universe I got really excited. I loved seeing Frankenstein cross over with the Wolfman as a kid, and as big of a fan of the Marvel Cinematic Universe as I am I couldn't wait to see Universal do something similar with their monsters. So how was The Mummy 2017 and the start to the Dark Universe? It was just okay. Lets start with what worked. The titular character in this film is actually pretty good. Sofia Boutella did a great job in both Kingsman and Star Trek: Beyond and was one of my favorite parts of this. I loved her design throughout the film. Russell Crowe also did a good job as the leader of the Prodigium (I wont spoil who he's playing in case you don't already know). I also really like the world they're setting up here. It was cool to see nods to the previous films and other monsters still lurking in the shadows of this world. But that's where the writers got stuck. They seemed so focused on wanting to expand the world that they didn't focus on the story, tone or characters at hand. Tom Cruise is Tom Cruise, no more, no less. If you like him in his typical action movies, you'll like him here. The main love interest seemed like she was only there to be rescued in the next scene. The comic relief best friend spouts one liners that fall flat almost everytime and spoon feeds exposition to the audience all while ripping off American Werewolf In London. The movie cant decide what tone its trying to go with. One moment its going dark the next its trying to recapture the fun of the Brendan Frasier films the next its an over the top superhero film. That's a shame because the movie has some pretty good action set pieces and a lot of interesting ideas. All in all The Mummy is not the start of the franchise fans or Universal were hoping for but there is plenty of groundwork being laid that is shouldn't be hard for a better director to correct the course with the next film in the series.

3/5.